Tuesday, 7 July 2009

Legal ruling halts Dick and Dek show

Legal Advisors have caused Richard Murray and and Derek Chappell to once again postpone their stand-up session at the Valley which had been rescheduled for this Thursday. This is particularly frustrating for long-suffering Addicks who have been left pretty much all Summer to make it up for themselves. The silence from SE7 has impacted season ticket sales, stymied much needed change and has further reduced the clubs' stock at a time we can least afford it.

On a more positive note, the decision to cancel and the reason given can only be as a direct result of takeover talks and the criticality of the stage at which they have reached. No reason was given for the previous cancellation but a delay to accommodate an announcement was suspected and this latest cancellation bears that out. Richard Murray's own words confirm the current takeover talk - "It might sound strange, but I hope fans take this as a positive thing, and of course we will rearrange this the event the moment we are able to speak freely." Those who still doubt that there is any takeover talk would do well to think back to the Zabeel deal and the painful lesson in "keeping mum" that the Directors learnt from that.

Personally, I only want to listen to the Club's owners when they have something to say and clearly that won't be on Thursday. We have to believe that news of a takeover will break soon and that it will be positive in terms of the decision and the scale of the investment and ambition of the new owners. It may have come far later than anticipated but if it enables us to clean up our act and start afresh, then maybe, just maybe, we have reached the bottom of our rollercoaster ride and can begin the climb back towards where we belong.

Strangely enough I'm not surprised by this announcement. If they were/are in talks, this was the only one that could be made. Pertinent questions would have had to have the stock "can't comment" answer, which would have raised more questions. This looks to have answered one, or given us an inkling of what one answer might be...if the answer is that, then we have all the other questions to answer. It could also answer why those players out of contract, but be still wanted, have not signed new contracts.Looks like I'll be checking my phone regularly over the next few days!I see Southampton could be Swiss by tomorrow!

Suze - Liebherr is a serious business and must be a real hope for the Saints. However, if anything were to go wrong with their deal, you have to think Southampton could be the first major club to go to the wall?